I Love it here now that I'm older than 21. Down town raleigh night life is awesome because it's a little city smack dab in the middle of suburbia. You can live in a nice neighborhood outside of the city and never even know it exists, yet on the weekends drive there in minutes. There is something for everyone there. Hipster area, college dive bars, the guido spots, the fratty spots, all within the same vicinity. Just big enough to not get bored, and small enough to get to know everyone. The PNC arena is great for hockey (if it comes back), and NCSU football is also really big here. The location is about 2 hours from the beach, and 2 hours from the mountains so if you ever feel the need to get away you have really good options available. You can't really beat it, voted the #1 city in america by bloomberg business week.

Sounds like Colorado sans beach. Of the three choices, Raleigh sounds the most appealing.